Of Secrets and Bays
by Polka Tacs
Summary: Peach Bay... What a nice name to a nice city. Or is it? Names can be easily deceiving, just as secrets are easily kept... or given away. What dark secrets does this bay hold that the townspeople don't note? Only time will know. (KSSU and anime based, I don't own Kirby. Rated T to be safe. Chapter 10 has been rewritten, and the fic is completed.)
1. Chapter 1

**Well, here it is! _Of Secrets and Bays_' first chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Disclaimer: I do not own Kirby nor any of the characters.**

* * *

" Well, we all know it's a cold night tonight, right? " Huffed a rather soft voice as its breath flew up into the air. Snow gently fell, surrounding a crowd of six or so creatures. Jerking of heads and even a 'yes' sounded. Huddled around a fire like penguins they were, wearing seemingly nothing but their fur and mix-matching various articles of warmth. " Well, even if is a bit cold, it's still a good time to tell a story. Any suggestions? " came the same voice.

No hands were raised. The story-teller gave a soft smile at this, baring a pair of sharp fangs before nodding and taking his turn at a story.

" Well, what to say? Hmm.. Nature Notch, our small little notch of Dreamland, " he gave an immature giggle at the pun, " Pretty nice, hm? With Twilight Outskirts and the Bay close by, what's not to love about here? Ever wonder how Peach Bay came to be, although? " He finished, letting them muse for a while. Half of the heads shook yes, the others no.

" The myth about how it was started is something of odd. Some say it was built by generations of villagers just living here, other people coming due to how beautiful it was and it eventually it became the large seaport it is today. Well, of course that isn't exciting, but the closet thing to the truth. The true myth is like this, " and he began.

" A bit boring at first, it starts out with an young sheep herder who was bored. All the mangy things did was go 'M'ahh!' at him all day long. One day he saw a small ship pull up near the creek he was at, so he decided to ditch the little things and go adventuring! Sounds like fun, hm? Not really. He had no clue how to even steer the boat ship thing, and he ended up just floating! A couple of days later, he was picked up by a crew from a ship. Now, you can't have a myth without some unnatural thing going on, right? " A small whiplash of light came from the fire as they huddled closer by it.

" Well, this was a creation ship - little ships that people see sometimes boarding the Bay that create the sea and land as they sail, or so people claim. People were nice, the creation ship let him on board and they sailed for quiet a long time, being happy and such. The herder or sailor now had a dream... for a beautiful, bountiful place full of sheep to spawn somewhere. Sure, the ship had somehow made nice oceans and bits of rivers they crossed into every now and then, but hey! Even the sea gets boring! " The snow stopped then.

" To put it briefly because I know were getting colder, he found Peach Bay, and that's how it came to be. " he ended with a smile, ignoring the small quakes his own body produced. At the end of the story telling period, everybody got up and walked away, besides one person. " Ah... T-thank you.. " it said, smiling at the story-teller before walking off in a separate direction towards Triangle Square. He stood there a while by the fire, it cracking as he nodded and smiled. A thin lining of snow covered his hat, as he sat himself down and sighed. The fire flickered on continuous then.

* * *

That same night a sled was pushed by a young blue boy named Meta through the snow-stricken streets. It made indentations whist being dragged, and a pair of silvery eyes gazed about Triangle Square. Around the triangular shopping center for the third time he went, thinking about the past day: new friends, starting to be a slid more disobedient, and why Peach Bay was so odd at times. He knew his mind should be stricken to thinking about something more of his age range, but that's what he got for being himself.

_Crunch, crunch_, pairs of feet went, filtering in and out of various shops, some slipping in the snow face-first. It was a nice clear-cut night, the moon setting up shop at only five o'clock but very dark outside. He stopped and looked up a smaller shop '_ Kikax's Fish Shop'_ - a family favorite of their's. He then looked at the alleyway beside it. The blue puff wondered why his parents nagged him against exploring there. Knowing he should get going some soon, he thought maybe just _one_ small peak wouldn't hurt.

It littered white gently as he let go of the sled and slunk in to see what it beheld. Meta looked around, seeing nothing more than a dumpster and a small box beside it. Wait.. why was the box _shaking_ slightly? He walked in towards it, noticing more odd things about this alleyway. It was a dead-end, unlike most other alleyways in the Bay that lead to separate places. The box stopped all movement when his feet made louder noises, churning over snow. About to up-heave the battered, crinkled and almost broken box, it sneezed.

This scared poor Meta that he stood in shock, wings wide open along with eyes. A groan then protruded from it. Standing near the end of the flickering light above the box in the alleyway, it heaved up just as snow came down again. His wings curled back to normal as he wiped a bit of fast collecting snow off them, to his surprise, delight, and confusion, came a face. He quickly saw a flash of magenta followed by some purple around the eye before the box plopped back into the snow.

_Thud!_ the box clattered back into the indentations it made in the pile of snow it now sank into. He sat there trying to make sense of what he just witnessed and why his parents never let him come back here. Ignoring a wet bottom, he sat beside the box against the brick wall of the other shop.

The box popped up again as another sneeze followed by a squeak sounded from it. He sighed, and finally said, " There's no need to be afraid. " The box was still as snow fell down on and off again. Meta, getting bored, got up and began to walk away from the box as it gave one last sneeze before finally unveiling whatever it hid. He turned to see a creature there much like himself.

It was a lavender winged puff, magenta in the eyes and fur with two small, yellow stumps for horns. Observing it even closer, it was continuously shaking, with fur much thinner than it should be for this time of year and a worrying dark red substance on its near its black eye. Staring at him through white particles, Meta was about to ask who it was before leaving. He found it to be a very odd puffball indeed.

" Excuse me.. but, who are you? Are you alright..? " he said in a curious tone, noting the black eye and what he thought was blood.

Putting a paw up to its eye, it blinked at him before chattering out coldly " G-Galactacia. N-no.. " in that high-pitched tone most puffs of their age have.

Slowly trudging away, he stopped to feel that Galactacia was tugging at his scarf. " A-And who are you? " it said, giving him a hard pressed look.

He gulped and replied " Metalla. Meta, and male. " He could feel it rubbing itself into his scarf and body, wedging itself underneath his caped wings as the shivering stopped. He was about to push it off before being stopped by a small grip and growl.

" Please d-don't. I'm really cold.. A-and if you can't tell, female. " the hot pink ball replied, having found herself a warm spot and sticking there.

Meta thought about how odd she was and crinkled whatever nose he had when he saw the red liquid on his scarf. He sighed and paced on, Galactacia stumbling beside him. For whatever odd reason, he just nodded and kept on, until finally around the corner and having his sled beside him again. The snow wasn't as deep here as it was in the alleyway and it stopped snowing.

Pacing out Triangle Square, he tripped face-first into the snow, spitting some out. He realized the girl had fallen asleep and. _Isn't that a bit too quickly to fall asleep? _he thought, before getting up and trudging her up onto the sled. " You're heavy... " he grunted as he managed get her up onto the sled. She was shaking again, poor thing. He took off his scarf and put it on her and began to trudge back to his house, his thick, blue fur not letting any cold in.


	2. Chapter 2

The moon shone very brightly through wisps of clouds. It was very dark and still cold as he traversed a small path over a frozen over river, winding below a frosty bridge. Meta's feet trudged through the snow, churning it with every step until he stopped at the top of the large bridge. It slopped down, and with shivers and trudging, he moved Galactacia before sitting in the sled beside her. She rustled as his feet then pushed the sled down, it going on by itself through the steep slopping bridge and hill that followed it.

He felt a cold wind going through his fur as they sped down the bridge, finally jumping into the hill as the moon remained calm as well as stars. It had stopped snowing a while ago, and Meta felt his face quickly shot a bright red as Galactacia trudged near him, moving the scarf around. His mind went over for the tenth time why he had decided to bring her along, and the sled halted to a stop slowly at long, narrow, bricken house. He tripped into the snow as she got up and he let out a sharp growl.

" Wha- why- How did you fall asleep and wake up so fast? " he whispered loudly as his breath rose into the air. Darkness of shadows passing by was all she saw and she curled the scarf over her as if in fear " I can... " she replied coolly, a hint of fear in her voice. The orange stitching hid her face and the blue marshmallow blinked her oddly. Had he heard the glimmer of fear?

He grabbed the thick string connecting the sled and pulled it, jumping and tripping over clumps of snow and hills and grass. She remained in her position, not moving, fearing that something bad may occur if she inched. His mind was still buzzing about the odd girl as he pushed open a door and grabbed her by the paw, pulling her off.

The wisps of clouds covered the moon now, but stars were still see able Foreseeable snow would fall soon, and she blindly followed him inside of his house. He closed the door and threw off the hat and gloves, running through the wooden floored hall with white walls, still dragging her along like an unwilling mule. Luckily, she seemed keen to being trudged around like this and followed along very well, scarf still covering the pink puff's face. He entered into a room and let go of her as she pulled off the scarf and looked around.

It was a small, dome-shaped room with a single window that had shutters. A closet was on the right side, and a minky blue floor in a blue room seemed fitting. A pile of pillows and a small, rounded bed, that was about all the simple room had to offer. Meta put his paw up his face again, thinking. The shutter let out some starlight in the fairly dark room and he spoke up, " Well, this is odd. "

She looked around blindly with a clearly terrified look on her face that Meta could see just fine in the dark. He blinked at her as if she was inane, and she replied, " Agreed... Wh-where am I and who are you? " she coaxed herself into her wing, calming down. He flicked a light on that illuminated the room and she suddenly seemed relieved of her small sliver of fear.

" My room, and I'm Metalla or Meta as I said before. " he replied. Her odd mood swing seemed to itch him in the wrong spot, as he crinkled his silver eyes and gave her a curious look.

" Metalla... sounds like a flavor of ice cream and a girl's name! Wait, didn't I see you just about fifteen minutes ago? " she asked after an impolite giggle.

He gave her a crude look and nodded. " Just call me Meta... 'Cia, you're very odd. Do you know why I brought you to my house? " Meta replied, imaging this scene to be so much more awkward in his mind.

" Because I was cold and you were sympathetic .. bleh, and I know. Marx must be rubbing off onto me... " she replied, rubbing her swollen eye. He twitched his eye quickly at the sight of blood and a wound, but shrugged off her blemish for now.

Meta gave her a look of keen interest, wanting to ask who Marx was but knew it wasn't the right time. " So.. uh... now what? " he said. Now the scene was beginning to get a bid more odd.

" Dunno. Mind if I stay here tonight? " she said, now giving a happy smile.

" Mum and Pa would kill me if they saw you here, but there gone so I guess... Yeah. " the blue boy nodded, his curiosity beginning to rub his mind more and more.

" Good night than! I'm not a nocturnal puff like you are, ya'h know? " she yawned. Her personality was odd, bouncy, yet still attracting and happy. Diving head first into the pile of pillows, he wanted to note they were dirty, but didn't. Soon she was out fast like a light bulb again, and Meta flicked the switch, sinking into his bed and looking up at the round, blue ceiling as the nights hushed off.

His wings had left another one of the silken coatings on the floor again, a price for being able to drape oneself's wings in a covering and make it come off. They were coaxed again and did one of the things he was best at: staring. His mind buzzed, thinking '_She's odd.. Why'd I blush? Oh, come on! You really are a softie like they say.. But maybe that's not it. Her personality is weird. Guess I may as well find out more about her tomorrow. ' _he concluded.

He tried clearing his mind and falling asleep despite it being only six o'clock, and soon managed to do so. The next couple of days would be an odd romp for him and his newly found friend.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a bright, glorious day for some snow when the two woke up. Meta was obviously first, his nocturnal instincts pushing him to stay up that night. He always had been a light sleeper due to that. Flexing out his large bat wings to hear the satisfying cracking of them waking up, he gazed around. His mind was a blank slate - no recollection of anything like always in the morning. He just sat and stared into space before being dragged back to reality by a sharp slap on the cheek.

The nerves lit up like a toaster, and he rubbed it. His purple cheek felt numb as he glared at her. "Don't do that again o- " he was interrupted by her cheerful chirping. "METALLA! Oh, there you are. Good morning!" Galactacia cooed out like a happy little finch.

"What was that for?" he hinted a small growl.

"You were being weird and weren't fully awake."

"Not like you aren't any weird..."

"Hey, I know I'm a bit off my rocker, but that's because I just went through one of these things called an eestrus? Istrus? Etruss... Bleh."

"Estu- what?" the blue puff said, his fur puffed up as he sat up in the circular bed. Galatacia stood on the blue floor, relaxing herself on it.

"Yep, just like my reaction. It's this thing were you stare at people and you wanna hug them in an umphy context. Get it? It also makes you really sleepy, which I don't like. No wonder the teasing was worse than usual... " she murmured quietly towards the end, thinking. Her black eye was still swollen, but it seemed to be calming down.

"So that's why you're acting weird... Umphy? And speak up?" he ended on a note of confusion heavy in his voice.

"Oh, em, nothing." she trailed off.

"Eh... OK.. You have a really weird choice, you know that right?"

"Drats, Marx again! He truly is becoming a nuisance of an inspiration." she said. The pillows in the background had been moved about, some a bit red from her sleeping face down on them with wet blood on them. This irked Meta bit, but he shrugged it off. He got off from the small circular bed he slept on and rubbed his bruised cheek again quickly before thinking again, that perilous shade of green in his eyes.

"What'cha thinking about?" the pink pompom asked gleefully. He looked at her, curiosity seen in the emeralds on his face.

"Something. Say, wanna meet my other friends because why not?" he asked, his eyes now silver again. She nodded briskly. Off and about they went after having a quick bit of food and Galactacia stuffing herself into two layers of scarves. More food was found where they were going.

* * *

Peach Bay was a sprawling place, with several interlocking roads, streets, shops, and a single tower out of all of it oddly enough. It was really a business tower, a place were a large coffee making company stood. Why in a Bay of all things, nobody knows. They called it the Coco Tower due to the building being tall, brown, and their coffee tasting like chocolate. It was a normal tower, just with a dark secret as most things had in the city had.

Nightmare Co., leader of a large portion of the universe, had a lot of connections to the Bay and Popstar. Firstly, this tower was a place were a lot of inner workings of the distraught company took place for a start of busting secrets. The coffee-making was a good cover up for the true nature of Coco Tower. Now, who would be leader of the workings of a large messaging point for eNeMe? A blue, chubby penguin, that's who.

Another boring day at the top of the tower in which he worked, and despite the appearance and the description given to the tower, it was frankly, very boring at times. The only real fun to be had was exploring it, and the storage center and messaging point was a large tedium of a maze. Nightmare could be seen gazing out from a television screen, broadcasting himself into a plain, brown room much like the tower itself.

"Update on beast 122, please." he stated in that brisk, dull yet deep tone of voice to a bored penguin. The penguin looked much like Dedede, except a bit darker in tone and he was instead wearing a dark orange tuxedo-like robe and had on a large, frilly hat because penguins have a weird fashion sense. He tapped the large paws he possessed onto a wooden table. "I don't know, ask Mark or someone.." he replied bluntly, swirling around in a turny chair he was sitting in towards the TV projecting the tall, sharp face of Nightmare's.

"Delanor, you truly never have been of much use. Why did I hire you again? That's right - to repay your debt for me. I'd like a check on that demon beast in another 45 minutes, or you and your son will become my dinner." he hissed in a sharp tone. Delanor looked up at him a bit scared.

"A-Alright Mr. Nightmare. Whatever you say.. Why do you need a check to be done on this little puppy of yours again? Why can't it just be sent off to that Clown School like the rest? Wha-? EP! ALRIGHT, I GOT IT!" the blue penguin stopped asking questions as soon as he felt a burning sensation on a scar near the top part of his face next to his eye.

"I don't need some chubby, whiny penguin asking me questions. Just go check up on it! Remember, 45 minutes, or you'll be my dinner." Nightmare smiled with his spiny teeth sticking out before the TV holding his face up snap off.

Delanor sighed and put his bill against the desk, taking off the feathered fedora on his head. "Rosy, why did we ever get into this mess?" his eyes were glinting up with tears. He got up out of the chair and pushed it back in with a slam before stammering out of the room and entering a large hallway leading up to several other rooms. North, West, than left he turned, stopping at the front of an elevator as he waited for it come down. He looked down at the brownish tuxedo, sighing as he turned his head at a small robed figure.

"Hey Mark." Delanor said coolly, his eyes still a bit red from those tears. It was a circular figure and it peered at him with one large eye and nodded at him. They entered the elevator together as it came down. "Eh, Mark, I have something to ask you. Mind if you check up on Beast 122, Chili Pup? I have no clue where its gone off too and I know you're the tracker... Nightmare asked me about it for some odd reason." Mark was still peering at him as he pressed a button leading to the first floor with one of his paws.

He nodded, large ears going up and down with his eyes closed, seeming to be rocking out to the elevator music. "Eh, Mark?" Delanor asked. He looked up at him and gave Delanor a nod for a yes before resuming what he was doing before. Delanor rested his face against the wall of the green inside as the elevator went down slowly. Surprisingly it didn't stop once for anybody else. "Why must this be so slow.." Delanor yawned before feeling the rebound as the elevator stopped.

He and Mark walked out. Mark twitched a large ear and waved good-bye at him before skidding off towards the left hall. Delanor wished the rest of the tower could be like this; white, nice, and clean. There were a couple of couches, a front desk, and a chandelier just for good measure. It was a very convincing entrance to make others believe it's a coffee manufacturing tower. He paced on the white tiled floor, and followed Mark town the left hall.

They entered a room full of televisions, each picturing security. Mark walked up to another door and slapped in an eight digit code leading to another room full of cameras. The metal door shut behind them, and Delanor looked around the vast, dark room. "122, 122.." he murmured, looking up at the three-hundred or so cameras in this room. Mark was fast to find it, and tapped on the screen at the bottom.

"So many beasts to take care of. Oh, there it is! Chili Pup if I do believe so... Alright, I know that place." he stated. The television beheld a triad of houses, snow glossed over each one. The red, small beast seemed to be flaming with a group of six, maybe seven puffballs around it. "Annoying little things, those puffballs are." Delanor muttered. Mark looked up at him with a mad face before shoving him awake from the television. He pressed a button on the television and it shut off.

"What wa- nevermind. I saw Mags there.. Mark, are you alright?" he asked the robed creature as he stammered off angrily. Delanor sighed. "How did I get myself into this mess again?"

* * *

"It just vanished..." murmured a voice in awe. A small, red wolf with thorns and an emerald on its head had just been before them, but was now gone. The flames it was bearing on its back had kept them warm, and now a large, green puff with a bit of red hair on his head chattered, "W-W-Where'd it go?" "Falspar, do you want a scarf?" Galactacia offered him one of her two. He took it and wrapped it around himself very fast. "Thanks Cheeky..." he murmured.

Six, seven puffs, all crammed into a small igloo they'd spent three days working on, were eating like piranhas whatever food they brought. "Meta, where'd you meet little Cheeky here again?" Falspar asked. Marx rolled his eyes, lapping up some blood from his torn lips. Meta was busy conversing with a light blue and heavily scared puff named Nonsurat. "Don't set him off, OK?" Dragata, a lavender puff with a pony tail nudged him as Nonsurat's face lit up to a bright red.

"I'm telling you, there's something up with these guys!" Nonsurat growled in his low voice, his fur puffing up. "Alright, alright, that's enough." Dragata slapped a paw over Meta's mouth before he could reply. Nonsurat breathed a bit heavily. He was very proud of his own opinions and tended to defend them despite being a quiet klutz of a puff.

"Guys! Shush, Marx is gonna tell a story!" Galactacia squeaked, seeming very excited. "Why, what's so go-" Galactacia stuffed her wing into his face before he could talk again. "Wait, were are the cookies?" Marx said, looking around the small igloo. "Here." Dragata help them up. Falspar took them from her and popped the lid open of the jar, eating a lot in his usual fashion. Marx stamped on the ground, trying to get their attention as they all went nuts for the cookies, trying to grab some.

They looked at him and Meta just gave him an odd smile. "The story? Alright. Hmm... which one.." he thought for a while, his thick, dark purple fur keeping out fur as it raised. "How about the Twilight Outskirts one? Anyone?" he smiled, his fangs baring themselves into his lip again. They nodded.

They had just recently met Galactacia and Marx, and seemed to except them into their small little group. 'Cia was really odd to Falspar and Nonsurat though, and how she got the nickname Cheeky from Falspar was because she had a really weird style of word choice like Marx and she was really cheeky and happy no matter what. Now, on with the story Marx began, "The Bay has a lot of interesting lore for some reason, maybe because it's really flippin' old. So, the Twilight Outskirts story shouldn't be new to anyone. Alright, letme begin." he took a deep breath and exhaled. "Long ago, Twilight Outskirts existed as a small little forest. Birds and bees lived happily there together in harmony as they all jittered about in the small patchlet of glow. One day, although, a rebellious little bee went up to his queen. The queen looked down upon him and her crown fell off. He caught it, and for this simple little deed, the bee was aloud to speak with her. He stated in his loud, yippy buzz 'Queen, do you not realize what this harmony is doing to us? It causes the birds to believe us to be fools, so they eat us! Why, I saw one eat one your workers today!' He was the only true fool of his hive, loving trouble because his life was a bit too boring."

"The queen looked at him, and sent off her warriors to declare war on the birds! Because, you know, bees are stupid and fall for the little wager and command of one bee. So, there was a war. The birds had excepted the invitation like idiots and began to fight. The bees stained the trees blacks with the birds' blood, surprisingly. That's why Twilight Outskirts is black. Well, along came a beast of horns, whom was allies with the birds. His flock of b'aahers stamped out all the bees and the birds one the war. The end." Marx stated happily. He stared at the puffs, quivering.

"Yay!" some stated, clapping paws together. "Like I said, good story-teller, isn't he?" Galactacia said happily. "Marx? Um.. Marx? Cheeky, behind you!" Falspar yelled. Marx was right behind her, looming over her as he breathed. His eyes were glossed over a pale white as he opened up him mouth. 'Cia grabbed his mouth and shouted at him much like an owner would at a misbehaving dog, "No Marx! Calm down! We're not marshmallows!" "What?" he stated, his eyes large and violet again.

"Oh, not again.. Sorry guys, I have to go!" he stated before scampering out of the igloo and running off, his shoes making marks in the snow. "I told you he was weird." Nonsurat stated as the hot pink puff sighed.

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait guys! Hope you liked this chapter. Also, today is my birthday! Yay! The story is starting to crank up more as you can read. Hope you enjoyed it, and please review! Bye~!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long wait; I had a hard time piecing together this chapter, thus the long wait time. Now that I see it's been causing a lot of plot holes and people have told me they got confused by this chapter, I've gone back and filled those holes in. Sorry about that.**

* * *

It was the day after the group had all first met Galactacia and Marx and everything had went well. They did a bit of sled racing, and despite Galactacia having no experience with a sled and her starting to feel a bit warm with a tingling throat, she was still very competitive. Just to put it, everybody almost ended up in a tree because of her. It had turned out that Dragata had a fever and spread it to her somehow, hence the hot feeling that lasted a couple more days.

Night had fallen at 9 o'clock and Meta and Galactacia were resting in his house. She managed to mumble out, "I need to go soon."

Meta looked at her and asked, "Why?"

"My father needs me. Told me he's gonna explain something to me." she replied, feeling her throat swell up.

"Wait, you have a father?" he knew he should stop asking questions, seeing as how she held were her throat was.

She just a bleak nod before getting up and walking down the hall. Meta followed her as she snugged the scarf she was wearing on tighter. He creaked the door open for her and he waved goodbye until she ran off, him still full of questions about where she was going and why she needed too. Speaking of fathers, Meta jumped when he heard a crash in the yard. This crash happened to come from his dad.

He ran over in the snow to a white-covered bench to see his a very large, stunt, dark puffball being tangled up. He was going to him help, but then his wings collapsed into a cape and he crawled out easily. "Hi!" Meta squeaked oddly, not knowing what to suspect of this. His father was dark, almost black but still having that tinge of blue to his fur, and had surprisingly bright, purple feet, looking much like his son. He got up and replied in a monotone voice, "Hello."

He was quiet, not around much, and kept to himself, so Meta had no clue what to suspect from him and why he was here. Just to make things a bit simpler, his name was Michelle. He was tired alright and wanted to go straight to sleep after coming home, but prolonged his awakeness to talk with Meta. "Glad to see you back," Meta said a bit quietly. "You too. Work's been a pain in the butt..." he finally felt near the edge of just falling asleep in front of him, as he had been awake for three days straight.

"Good night." Michelle mumbled before walking inside, almost tripping due to tiredness as Meta as he following behind, pestering him with questions like, "Why are you here?" and "What do you do?" None of these were answered, and it remained that way for a long while after them first being asked.

* * *

A hot pink puff whom one should know by now came out from the darkness, witnessing Meta's father come and them "talk" for a bit. She stumbled along a dirt road in the cold night, shivering.. She didn't mind being out in the snow, knowing she needed to go. She wondered why her father wanted her and felt tiredness grabbing on to her blunt, oval leg feet. She just resumed on, knowing it was time to go anyways. She walked alone through the white noise, just a silhouette in the moonlight.

Opening up wings, she attempted a bit of flight but just became fallen. Rubbing her numb face from the cold and wet snow, she stumbled up and sneezed. "I hate being sick..." she mumbled softly as she came to a large gate, indicating the entrance of the Bay. She slipped through the cracks of the bars as she turned a sharp left towards areas unknown. All the hot pink puffball knew was to follow her father's directions and that was it.

She shaked in cold and fear at the longing eyes in corners staring at her before she quickly ran towards the front of a tall beacon of light - Coco Tower. A small, robed figure floated out and she gave a small nod to it as so did it in turn. Silent night it was, as she looked around and sitting on the paved street. She watched the tall buildings surrounding the tower shake and seemingly tumble to the ground as her eyes adjusted to the bright than dim fuzzy lights.

Galactacia festered in cold before finally the door shot open to behold a stout tuxedoed penguin. "Are you Galactacia?" he asked, looking at the poor shell of a lively pompom. She just gave a quick nod before taking his cue to come inside the warmth of the tower, which she did.

Bright white blinded her as she covered her eyes from the bright, white tiled and ceilinged room she entered. "I am Delanor and that blue floaty guy was Mark. Your... 'father', has told me to look for you and then take you up to my office. Please come now. " he said in a loud, monotone voice devoid of feeling besides a snark when he said 'father'. Galactacia's throat finally decided to get to a too sore of a state to speak, so she just followed along blindly.

She felt being pushed towards a dimmer elevator in which she finally opened her eyes. She sneezed, stuffing her face into a scarf some more. "Cold or somethin', hmm? Must be that time of the season." Delanor grunted softly as the elevator went up. Galactacia sat down in the corner of it, keeping her coughing and sneezing to herself.

The elevator seemed to drag on forever and in this time she rested, believing it to help keep the fever from getting too high. Delanor sighed and grabbed her, putting her onto his back before stepping out of the elevator when it stopped. He went down a brown hall, the dark, crispy shade of brown the color the tower was before entering his small office. He tapped the screen Nightmare tended to appear on furiously before it clicked on to show Nightmare.

"Have you brought her here?" he snarled, his sharp teeth pointing out. "Yup. Should I, leave?" Delanor asked shyly. "How precious, she's sleeping. Yes. Go." Nightmare scolded as Delanor lifted her off from his back and put her into the rolly chair. The penguin slipped out of the door and it closed behind him a thud loud enough to wake up Galactacia. She looked around wildly as the turney chair swirled in a circle before she smiled underneath her scarf as she looked up towards her "father."

Nightmare grinned and began, "So how's my little 'Cia?"

She blinked while looking up at him and replied softly, "I'm sick." She shivered a bit when she saw his figure, the rounded cloak with the grey face and sharp, pointy teeth sticking out beneath his pair of sunglasses. She wondered why he looked like a nightmare, and why she even affiliated him with being her father, being at the age of understanding things better.

"How bad. Do you know why your here?" he asked, glaring at her from the screen.

She looked up and nodded her head no, her throat crisscrossing again.

"Seeing as how you're sick, I want that chubby penguin outside to watch you. Alright?"

She just stared at him, thinking him to be crazy if he would let a stranger - a penguin for Pete's sake! - to watch over her. Noting the body language, Nightmare sighed and said, "I know he's strange and weird - which he is," he whispered, "But you need to give him a chance. He'll take good care of you. Besides, we even have some medication for your fever." Nightmare felt very weird, having to be kind to a puffball. He hated doing it, but needed her to be trusting of him, and no, he didn't plan on using his powers on her, believing the outcome of his beasts to be better when given no ques or commands from him besides listen to him.

Of course he had intentions with her, and knew to keep them private. He'd already have a future customer for her when he was finished "working" with her, that gullible Delanor's son Dedede as he called him. Galactacia sighed and nodded.

"I'm glad you understand," Nightmare said, not knowing where that came from. "You may leave. Delanor, I'd like a word with you..." Nightmare said as she stumbled out of the room, coughing.

Delanor sighed and slid in through the door of his office, the door shutting behind him as she pressed her face against the door to listen. She managed to make out a couple of mumblings.

"..beasts, I make here... you know.. 'Cia, that plan!.. Stupid!" that was Nightmare's voice.

"That girl is in a plan... What?! Why? Ugh... watch her? Fine.." Delanor's voice was much louder and audible than Nightmare's slick tone.

Galactacia was piecing this together and thought, _'So there's me.. and a plan.. So that's where those weird creatures come from! He makes them! And that penguin guy doesn't seem too happy about watch me, neither am I. But what plan? All I know is that I'm involved...' _Her mind boggled about this plan, barely having heard of it.

Than Nightmare said in a loud voice, almost as if to get Galactacia to hear, "Take her to Zenith Bluff, alright? Get him some cocoa. That'll do good. And than resume with your normal schedule. End of discussion, Delanor."

The television made a loud buzz as it shut off itself, and Delanor stamped out of the hall and looked at Galactacia. "Well, I have the night shift tonight to watch over the animals, so you can just stay in my workplace and sleep, alright?" Delanor had a very backwards way of dealing with things, like inviting her to sleep in his office while he watched the cameras in the downstairs where the demon beasts were kept to make sure none get out.

Her mind still busy and her throat too knotted up to reply, she gave a stunt nod before heading inside and crawling into the chair, making the best of her scarf to be a blanket. '_At least it's better than sleeping in a box...' _she thought before falling asleep.

* * *

Meta woke up in his bed the day afterwards, looking around. He ran through the door excitedly and looked around the house, but to his disappointment his father had left. Odd, he thought. He sighed and snugged a scarf onto him before walking outside.

"Hey Meta!" said an eager voice as he stumbled through the doors a bit bored and blatant.

"Hello Falspar." he grunted.

"What's up with you, Mr. Grumpapus - I need to stop giving you guys nicknames. I'll meet you at Zenith Bluff in fifteen minutes." the darkening green puff asked, scratching the tuffet of red hair on the top of his head before waiting for a quick reply.

"I guess a good hot cocoa could do - sure." Meta nodded, stating it from underneath his green and blue striped scarf.

"See you there!" and with that, Falspar was off on his sled as it curled down the snowy hills and winded down the hill.

Meta opened up his bat wings and ambitiously took off, being batted at by furious wisps of winds as the clouded sky tossed him about. He managed to somehow to stay straight, being flipped upside down and having to rearrange his scarf several times. The air chilled the stretched out membranes of his wings as he skidded at the air, looking through the foggy view until he saw a point sticking out in the sky that indicated Triangle Square. He landed in the frosted over gardens of the square, the frost and white making everything seem elusive and chilling as it truly was.

He ran over the bridge and stopped at a brick path that wound through the small shopping center. He went South for about two minutes before standing, stopping, and shivering at a small, inviting hole in the ground that lead to Zenith Bluff. It was bar and café, usually were people met together or came just for a quick chat with strangers. The interesting part was that it was underground, and the main place were people sat and ate at was a carved out large cave inside of a bluff. You could look outside of a huge glass window and see the Bay, and it made for some beautiful views at times. The interior was that at the bar being at the back, with cushiony furniture and tables set up on a wooden floor with bright brown and grey walls and stalagmites and stalactites hanging from the ceiling that had lights coming from them.

He looked around and went down a short staircase into the bluff café. He looked about and facepawwed, realizing he'd forgotten to bring some money. Oh well; perhaps Falspar had brought some. Anybody and everybody of all ages were allowed in the restaurant, so it wasn't unusual to see groups of teens and elders here. You decided the seating, and Meta chose a large, rounded table with small stools and a good view of the frozen, frosted bay as well as next to the large chimney shack that stood in the center of all the place so he'd warm up.

He looked around, waiting for his friends as he went up to the ordering place. He took a small cup and filled it with some hot cocoa at the self-serving station and walked back to the table after bumping into some dees and burts and other common inhabitants of Dreamland. He drank it - hot cocoa was free this time of year in Zenith Bluff - and saw Falspar alongside Nonsurat skid down the ladder and sit beside him, unpretentious of anyone's opinion.

"Where's Dragata?" Meta asked in between a gulp of his cocoa.

"She's out with a fever or cold like Galactacia. Hmph, disease. Why does it always need to come along and spoil our fun?" Nonsurat muttered as he sat down.

"I think it's weird that only the girls are getting it. " Falspar asked after chucking down some cups of cocoa onto the wooden table.

Suddenly, Delanor came down the ladder and pushed Galactacia down as well so she landed on his head. She was warm, hot as a sona really, and had a distinct reddish tone to her fur not eminent in any other sightings of her.

"Wait, Galactacia? What's she doing with a penguin?" Delanor eyed the group of puffballs oddly as she glanced at them with tired eyes. She skidded down his back and took a seat between Meta and Nonsurat. Delanor gave her a quick look and her fur puffed up as if to indicate don't screw around with her.

"Are you alright?" Nonsurat asked concerned, putting a paw to her. He quickly lifted it up as it felt surprisingly warm. She managed to mewl out, "Yep."

"Who are you?" Falspar asked, going up to Delanor who was just getting some hot cocoa.

"I see that you're friends with Galactacia.. I am Delanor," he replied in his stunt voice as he put a cap on the plastic cup the cocoa was in.

Falspar eyed him and huffed, "I know your up to something... What are you doing with Cheeky?" He was starting to get agitated that his friend was being carried around by some stranger, and thought he had something to do with her ill appearance.

"I'm her guardian for now... She has a terrible fever and we only came here to get some cocoa."

"I knew she had a fever or whatever." Falspar growled, now clinging onto the penguin.

She seemed a bit upset, the pink marshmallow being comforted by other comfort foods. "I gotta leave.. these guys.." her voice was knotted up in a cough.

Meta was hugging her, feeling that warm, devastating heat quell through her body. "What'd they do?" he whispered underneath his voice to her.

She murmured, "They plan on doing something with me... and they make those beasts here because I dunno. That wolf for example, his work, and I have something to do with a plan.. Can't speak." she finished, snuggling into her scarf some more before Delanor tapped on her back and said, "Time to go."

He managed to wriggle Falspar off of him before being brought to the ground by him. "'AY, YOUR LARGER THAN I THOUGHT!" Delanor squeaked while Falspar held his face against his, wanting to murmur something but couldn't think of anything before punching him in the face.

"What the fudge did you do to Cheeky? Hmm? She's not so cheeky now.." he finally thought of to say. Everybody in the café turned and looked at him before Nonsurat grabbed Falspar and trudged him off of Delanor. Delanor got up shaking, ignored his bloody mouth, and put his fedora back on before grabbing Galactacia by the hand and dragging her up the ladder and away, hot cocoa still in his paw.

Falspar breathed a bit heavily. He felt a slap coming on, delivered by Meta surprisingly. "Dude, you don't do that!" Nonsurat looked around a tapped them and muttered, "They're all staring at us so we better go!"

Thus they went outside while Meta gave Falspar a lecture on not to attack chubby, defenseless penguins that are affiliated with people you call friends but still barely know. When they reached the top, Falspar changed the topic of the lecture. "What did Galactacia say?"

"Some bizarre stuff; her father makes beasts things like that wolf - Chili Pup - and he also accidentally blabbed out she was gonna be something of importance... I'm not really sure, because she only managed a hoarse mumble I could barely make out." Meta sighed.

Nonsurat rubbed his nonexistent chin, thinking. Everybody was puzzled by this, Galactacia too as she stumbled through the snow towards them. Delanor had lost sight of her for one moment and she managed to find them. "I-I'll be back." she shivered out as everybody gave a happy stare at her before she ran off to Delanor again. With that, everybody said nothing more, deciding to put it to rest until Galactacia came back better. With that, off they all went home.


	5. Chapter 5

She slumped on the couch, feeling like a hot ball of fire. It'd been.. what... a week? Yes, a week since she had last seen her friends and felt the tension of death begin to loom over her. After leaving Zenith Bluff, the penguin had resumed to take her to various shops, the tower, and then to his wretched little dump of an apartment. After that, she stayed on the couch in the apartment and time stood still. Her body felt like a heavy brick as she kept her breathing slow and heavy.

Galactacia looked around, everything seeming blurred. Her fever.. it had only worsened. That medication? It seemed to be doing nothing to her. Delanor kept telling her, "You'll be OK.. it's alright.." in a rather hushed, fatherly tone. She knew Nightmare had been right on one thing, the penguin seemed to be of no use. She felt her brain begin to rummage through the good memories.

Her fur was a bright, hot red instead of pink now, and she felt the way she look - hot. Sweat encased her time and time again, and she knew her time might be coming due to some simple disease that could have prevented some sort of tragedy. A hot wick of flame on a small candle she was, the couch being her shallow grave or place of rest

She waded about, wishing just to be either be put out of her misery. Her throat was in knots, she felt terrible and hot, and closed her eyes. Yet she knew what would happen when she reached this state, she'd be put somewhere to try and recover. But not in a hospital; no, a nightmarish place, as Delanor had accidentally described to her. Pain was her face and she out stretched her wings, trying to cool off. She finally came still, her eyes widened and still.

She stared into the blurry pillow, and felt her breathe and heart slow. '_Come now... Just try to stay with it - it'll be OK. Oh, I can't. I only wish to have said farewell to them..' _were her lasts thoughts as the candle finally went out. She slumped out of the couch, having drowned in heat. Her senses mingled, and the last thing she saw was a blur before black conquered all.

Delanor happened to walk in at just this moment, dropping bags full of food onto the wooden floor. He walked slowly over to the fallen puff, knowing what to do once he found her in this state. Yet he knew he was to blame for this. His feathers ruffled on end as he picked her up and placed her onto his back. No clue if she was dead, alive, or hibernating as very unhealthy or broken puffs did to recover. He hoped for the latter of being alive or hibernating.

"Delanor, you should be ashamed of yourself; she should have been in a hospital for Nova's sake! But do you want death on yourself and son or her? Ugh, I hate life at times..." he scolded himself, going around the bags and down and out the apartment and walking down the street towards the tower through the melting snow. He knew this was going to happen, that the medication did nothing, and he was pissed off with Nightmare. Why did he need this to happen in order to make a demon beast? Where did his plethora of infinite beasts come from? He was going to ask.

He hurried through the glass entrance of the tower, and tripped down some stairs. Through the camera room and into a darkened room he went. He curled around the large piece of technology that allowed transportation of the beasts easy, and he set her down in a bed inside a smaller room. Devices hooked automatically up to her and he left her, going through the metal doors again as one clanked up behind him. He went up the elevator that lead to the 19th floor - his working floor.

He walked down brown halls and entered his room. He was very angry, and wanted answers from Nightmare now. The television that allowed him to see Nightmare chirped on and it broadcasted Nightmare's grey face. "Have you done as I've asked?" he hissed out.

Delanor was red in the face and he gave a bluff nod. "Nightmare, I feel ashamed for doing this. She's just a young girl! And what about this?" he snapped back, standing up close to the television.

"No, she's a nuisance like the rest of those puffballs. I know they'll be my downfall once they grow up and join their ranks..." he replied, his cloak adjusting. "So, to change that, I'm making her a true demon beast." he gave a sharp grin.

"What do you mean a real demon beast?! What about those others?" Delanor yelled out.

"Those are just decoys, tests, failures, or trainees. They're meant to be sold and used by idiots like yourself." he replied.

"Than what process do you use to make the real -" Delanor was still enraged, asking this questions to get a better understanding of why he had to do this.

"Enough of this nonsense, I'm not giving away any more! Now off with you or else!" he growled at the penguin.

Delanor was still upset and he punched the television screen as it broke and turned off. "I DON'T GET IT!" he yelled, picking up a crumbled piece of the screen and chucking it at the wall. He stamped off and out of office, thinking over the events he had done and how even got himself into this mess while trying to calm himself.

* * *

Meanwhile, life was like normal for the other puffs. They had no clue what had happened to Galactacia, and everything seemed boring, especially the week that had just passed by.

Scarves were still needed as they sat outside in blunt, yellow grass that felt wet from the melting snow. Winter ending was usually a cause for celebration, but something felt weird without it. Perhaps it was because of the quick shift in weather and season that made it seem why. Nonsurat swayed ceaselessly on the swing wrapped around a strong branch on a tree they all were sitting on.

"So.. how's been things?" the turquoise puff asked, watching the two as they blurred when he swinged. Awkward silence had reigned over them until Nonsurat asked this question.

"Weird. Questioning." Meta replied, seeming indefinitely quiet still. No signs of Dragata or Galactacia ever since hearing those words, "I'll be back." His feelings were a bag of worry, waiting, and surprisingly - lonesomeness. His mind hadn't rest for the past week, being too busy thinking over what this plan was, the sightings of this red wolf and the connections they had to the secrets of the city, and if Dragata and Galactacia would get better.

"But why? Things been pretty good with me." Falspar replied, nodding for some reason. No response from Meta as he felt an awkward anger rise to another level.

"Why be a grumpapus now Meta?" Falspar chuckled. He flinched back quickly when he saw a paw right in front of him, threatening to hit. His fur on edge to make him look bigger, Meta seemed to not want to be kidded with or annoyed right now. Falspar put his angry paw slowly and gave a hollow reply to it, "You do know I'm larger than you."

"Guys, I think it's best to not be angry with each other for no reason right now.." Nonsurat huffed back.

"You're right." Meta snapped quickly, sinking back in between two roots of the tree and remained quiet.

Thus it stayed this way, tension between Meta and Falspar with the unrest of Nonsurat as he stayed on edge, ready to break up the fight that never came. They practically stayed this way for the rest of the day, doing nothing besides giving short bursts of conversations and thinking about when the other two of the group would get better.


	6. Chapter 6

It was dark and depressing in there, yet the warm, open arms of spring weren't as she ran in to them, letting it embrace her.. She looked around at the shortened buildings surrounding the tower. The bricks seemed happy to have sunlight again. It was still cool outside, but spring had only been around for two days now. Everything seemed peaceful, as it truly was.

How long Galactacia had been sleeping, she had no clue. It was weird to have nobody inside the tower at the time of her escape. Maybe it was planned...? No, what a stupid idea that was! She glanced at the glass entrance door, a sign on it saying, "DAY OFF - HOLIDAY." Yes, Nightmare had allowed a holiday just for today as spring had came and due to popular demand. Her horns were a bit dented due to her using them as a ram to bust open the steel doors. She had woken up in a softly lit room, eager to get out, which she had just accomplished.

The pink puff felt relieved and worried. What had her friends thought? Did they worry? They obviously did. To satisfy her quench for answers, she opened up her wings and took off a bit jittery on to a warm, stark wind without glancing back. She recalled it vividly; feeling the blankness than waking up before using most of her strength to get out.

Her fleshy feathers felt good touching the wind as she circled around the city once before heading off towards where her group was.

* * *

Everybody and everything was quiet. It had been for almost a week now. Nobody spoke, too busy remembering their short-lived friend. Was this what loosing someone you cared deeply for felt like? It was. Life seemed normal, but it wasn't. That small little spark of interest, that's what had been lost. Yet spring had brought hope she was still out there, somewhere.

How easily we - and them - get attached to people we don't even know much about! These are the true gifts in life, being able to have friends without even knowing them that well. Meta circled the sky around for the tenth time, keeping a look out. Falspar and Dragata relaxed beside each other underneath him with Nonsurat looked up sadly.

He yelped as something crashed into him. Nonsurat jumped up from underneath them as Meta looked angrily before recovering from the small tumble in the air. He floated and just stared with wide, white eyes. Nonsurat did the same except he smiled. "Is that you?" Meta asked. "HOLY CRAP, SHE'S BACK GUYS! BACK!" Nonsurat yelled from below. Galactacia just hovered, seeming to be happy too and gave a nod.

His blue fur puffed up as they landed. Everybody seemed, looked, and felt happy before there was a big group hug.

Belonging. A feeling Galactacia had never felt in her life, but now it just seemed too real to be a myth anymore.

They broke up and the question rolled in. Falspar, of all puffballs, asked with his heart trembling and eyes watery, "W-We thought you were dead! Where'd you go?" The feeling of worriedness was gone and the memory of her being gone as well almost seemed to vanish after asking this question. The revelation of their friend being alive seemed to wipe this away pretty quickly.

"Inside that tower with a fever. What happened to you guys..?" she asked. Everybody seemed a bit... burnt. Literally, with darker patches of fur on them.

"I got this one. It was last night. Everybody was relaxing and being worried like we were today. Than that wolf, Chili Dog, that you've heard sightings of came and got us by surprise. We fought it off quite easily, thought. Strength in numbers, you know? Anyways, it almost exploded in that little stream over there, but it vanished. Left us with some minor burns. It seemed to have this questionable sense of fear in its eyes, though.." Dragata said.

Galactacia felt herself blush when Meta hugged her again a time after everybody broke off. She nudged him off a bit, and replied, "Oh. Anyways, that was quick to get over the fact I was gone... Why get over it so fast?"

Everybody just gave her a shrug, not really knowing why. All went off to gouge themselves in food afterwards. Yet there was a thought in the back of everyone's mind, and that was the curiosity of the tower. Why hold her there? And why did it seem so elusive? It only made coffee after all, right...?

* * *

Everything seemed fine afterwards. The tower relit itself in the night, the brown lights making a pillar of light the next day. Inside, everybody was busy wrangling beasts and getting messages exchanged whilst scampering around.

A penguin wearing a black tuxedo cape looked up at a new television broadcasting his boss's face on it. "She got away." he snorted at him curtly.

"I can see that. Any other updates?" Nightmare replied, his spiny teeth grinning.

"Beast 122 escaped again, as so did some others while we had the vacation day." Delanor retorted.

"I knew we shouldn't have had that... Are they all back in place?"

"Yes sir." the penguin seemed oddly polite, and this got Nightmare thinking.

"Delanor, is something bugging you?" Nightmare asked, that eternal grin on his face.

"N-Nope. Nothing at all." he shook his head just to reaffirm his statement.

"Is that so? Okay... wait.. an update on puff number one?" he asked.

Delanor tilted his head before looking at him and mouthing the word, "No." He knew who he was talking about, and had a sudden sense of fear over come him. "S-S-She.. she's... we have no response yet."

"Is that so? Make Mark check the cameras quickly, than reply in fifteen minutes." the television snapped off afterwards.

Delanor gulped. Why did he always have to go around, screwing around with that poor girl? Was she some sort of hobby to him, to mend her and use her like a toy? He clicked a button that turned on a speaker. "Mark, check up on puff one." he said sternly. He heard a reply come later that sounded squeaky and short, "In work; virus is going at it."

Delanor had no clue what he meant, and just tapped the television. He was spooked when Nightmare's face suddenly flashed on, and he waited quickly for a reply. "In work; virus is going at it..?" Delanor repeated what Mark had said before Nightmare gave a devilish smile and nodded.

The television snapped off afterwards.

* * *

**Hope you didn't mind the shortness or the fluff. Keep reading and reviewing! Thanks.**


	7. Chapter 7

A tall, slick shadow peered from his lair. A large chessboard was below him, and the sensation of the curling of red, smoky air surrounding it was not a good one. Unless you were him. Pieces shifted by themselves automatically. He knew what he was - a master puppeteer watching his own show, the onlookers angry besides his fans as he described it. His pale face and large, purple cloak winced around him as he floated out of the chessboard room and in to a white room. White ceiling, white flooring, white everything; he called it his 'camera room'.

Nightmare adjusted his glasses and looked into a camera. He tapped it on as he saw a rather stunt, blue penguin looking up at him. "Delanor, is it going well so far?" he asked, his spiny teeth smiling as they usually did. Delanor looked at him and gave a rather queer smile, nodding. Nightmare knew something was up and gave a slight discontented sigh. "Very well." he said before he shut off the camera.

It's very boring to be cradled in a room all day, with so much power to play with. Why did Nightmare even bother with Peach Bay, Coco Tower and such in the first place? These were questions Nightmare asked himself constantly, but he knew why. To stretch his power and domain, to see people become distraught in tremble in fear in his name! Universal domination is a very good idea if you like the thought of people cringing in fear, masses dying, poverty and sickness and there was nowhere else to turn to because you had already done it to your own kind... What a sick, twisted mind Nightmare had.

Yet why should he care? He was only the puppeteer and nobody knew his tomfoolery he was pulling on the crowd. The puppets got the blame, while he ran his show in the audience quietly and smirking. His collection of demon beasts was growing quite larger and he needed others to take care of the business as he watched. With that pesky little Galaxy Solider Army having declared war on him such a long time ago, he had slowly brought others into charge as there was so much to control. It's a very big universe, one knows.

That's why he bothered and cared about these miniature places and lives compared to him. That's why Nightmare did all of this, or so he told himself. The master puppeteer smiled at his true puppets - the crowd - before he vanished back in to the chessboard room, unaware of the terror that had happened at the tower.

* * *

It had been truthfully very quiet for the past week or so. Delanor was busy organizing everything. He had a debt to pay off to Nightmare, and wanted to pay it off as soon as possible in the beginning. Yet now he had grown attached to being the leader of Coco Tower, the not-so humble tower that made coffee and held lots of beasts.

Something had gone terribly wrong this time though. He turned around in his swivel chair away from the television that had Nightmare up on it a minute ago and cringed. "Oh crap..." he muttered under his breath, scurrying down the hall and in to the elevator. He needed to get out of here, and fast. He spammed the down button and heard it coming. "Open up, open up!" he growled as the elevator opened its doors. Before he got in, he stopped. Something was breathing behind him.

His heart beated faster as he turned around to see what was causing that warm breath on his neck. He felt trapped, shaking violently as he cursed at a brown, floating being behind him. "Mark, don't do that!" The elevator was about to close as Mark shoved him in. The two stood side by side as the elevator went down. The music was calming, but Mark didn't bop his head to it as usual. They were quiet.

The doors opened up at the first floor as they slowly walked together outside of the front door. They stopped and turned as Mark's ear flicked at a soft noise. "Go.." Delanor whispered to him, grabbing his hand as the penguin dragged Mark along. Mark slipped out of his grip and ran fast out of the white building and outside. The doors flickered together as Delanor approached them.

He couldn't help to quake and shift wildly, looking around whenever he heard any sort of soft noise as he approached the doors. The whole building creaked, having an eerie feeling. The penguin knew he should run, but penguins are clumsy on land as so was he. Just one more step... the lights flashed off in the building as he stepped outside. He glanced through the windows before running off. He was stunned and frozen in fear as he swore he saw a pink flash in the glass entrance.

Delanor tripped and got up, running at a very fast pace after Mark. Before he could catch up to him, something stopped him. He screamed really loud before breathing fast and wincing at Mark. The small, rabbit-like creature glared at him with yellow eyes and dragged him. Delanor wanted to say something, but couldn't. He was out of breath and still scared as his heart pumped, sweat breaking out. True terror was at hand for the penguin as he tried his best to keep up with Mark as they ran away from the tower.

* * *

It was all over the news - creatures, large, creepy, devastating creatures, known as demon beasts, had escaped from Coco Tower. Nobody knew the rather peaceful tower to have held these until they escaped somehow. Two people had already been killed by them. All citizens of Peach Bay were to stay inside until further notice. What a drastic change of things had taken place in one night, and the current situation at hand scared people.

The group of puffballs reread a newspaper on the event over and over again. Falspar threw it in anger, his fur spiked up. "I knew something was up..." They were all in Meta's house, it being the closest one they were to when they got news of the event. The wooden floors of the rounded living room creaked as Nonsurat paced on them. "If I see any of them, they know they've got something coming for them!" Falspar huffed.

"Guys... where is Galactacia?" Dragata asked, looking around.

"Oh buttered crumpets.. Or Meta for that matter?" Nonsurat murmured. Everybody felt tension grow as they heard something outside. They all froze.

The door cracked open as Nonsurat peered outside to see what it was. Meta stood there, stumbling in. He slammed the door behind him before walking in.

"Oh thank NOVA you're here!" Nonsurat yelped as he ran up to Meta whom was limping a bit.

"T-Those damn beasts!" the blue puff growled, his eyes lighting up to a deep red. Nonsurat backed away, surprised by Meta's sudden outburst. That was really unlike him to be this way.

"What is it?" the teal puff asked, ignoring the stinging of one of his several scratches.

"One of those beasts - Chili Dog, or Wolfwrath - caught us by surprise. We had no clue the things had escaped. Tried fighting it off, but it had grown larger and stronger and there was no water in sight. It took Galactacia; caught her by the wing and proceeded to chew it. I swear I heard cracking." he twitched, clutching his chest. His fur was damp and warm with blood. He seemed... different now, his eyes still red. "I tried going after her, but then more beasts came up. I got bitten in the chest and barely managed to fly away." His eyes faded from red.

"That's terrible.. We need to go after her! Yet what would they want with her?" Nonsurat replied in turn.

"That wolf has an affiliation for her - and us. Like its been made to go trigger happy with fire at the sight of puffballs. But why her of all of us, I don't know. As much as I would like to go after Galactacia, we shouldn't. There's too many of them. We need to think of something..." he muttered, stumbling in to the living room as his eyes turned green.

Falspar and Dragata looked petrified when they saw the blue puff red with a slightly torn wing. "Are you alright?" Dragata murmured, her fur puffing up. Meta nodded, and said, "There should be a first aid kit in the bathroom." She nodded and went off.

"Now I really want to kill one of those beasts... What happened?" Falspar asked. Nonsurat stepped in and explained what happened as Meta sat still, thinking. Dragata was back with the first aid kit soon afterwards.

Meta turned for it, his eyes shut as he felt the pain from the gash and opened the kit. He took the bandages and tried wrapping them around himself, finding it hard and painful. Nonsurat offered to do it for him and he did, and wrapped them around him. He gave a thank you before Dragata asked, "Why didn't you go to a hospital?"

"Good question." was all Meta replied, looking down at his bandages with green, thinking eyes. Everybody then began to think of a plan to get what they lost back from the beasts.

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**Sorry for the wait on this chapter. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

It was the first night of monsters having infested the city, them having the puffballs concerned for Galactacia as well as the citizens. Delanor and Mark had made a run for it from the beasts after getting Delanor's son, a penguin of "royalty" you should know. They were on the brim of Twilight Outskirts, the glowing forest near Peach Bay that grew up into the Bluff Mountains bordering Prism Plains and Nature Notch.

"What the hell happened to this place, Mark?" Delanor asked him as they sat on the outskirts of a forest near by the run down Peach Bay. He glanced at him with yellow eyes and nodded as he usually did, drawing his hood over him to try to get some shut-eye. "Where're we going to live? Oh, Dee, I don't know..." his dark blue feathers fluffed up as he hugged a much smaller penguin to him. The tinier penguin gave a small honk as he slept in his large red robe. "At least I got my son and that's all that counts. No more Nightmare and Co. either! But I have no clue where to go... Do you Mark?" Delanor talked to himself. Mark shoved him, giving him a grumpy look, being tired.

"You're right. I should stop talking and sleep too... Good night Dee and Mark." he murmured, tilting his hat over his eyes and hugging the smaller penguin to him, trying to sleep. He still had no clue how the beasts had gotten out, and Mark and him had made a mad dash for Twilight Outskirts. The plants glowed softly in the night. Perhaps they should try to get a boat, sail it for Prism Plains and go to the small village there? Yeah, that's what they would do.

Yet it left Delanor to wonder as he slept, _'Did everyone just leave and let people fend for themselves in the city? Where were the police or something?_' He came to this conclusion, '_Yes, they indeed did leave us to fend for ourselves. And about the forces.. maybe they just never present themselves formally or let civilians know they exist? Or maybe there's no need, seeing as how most folks are peaceful and docile, like the 'dees and cappies that made up most of our population._' These thoughts soon became something mindless that numbed his imagination before he fell asleep.

* * *

Meta flew through his front door, skidding through the long hall. He knew he had most likely awoken his sleeping comrades, so he made no hassle to close the door. He rubbed his chest, the bandages still on as the wound bled anew. He cringed, biting his lips from the pain as he stumbled back inside his living room. He'd done another quick scan of the Bay to see if he could find Galactacia, but no signs seemed obvious. The streets were quiet at night, as some demon beast slept and others ripped each other apart and ate.

Some how the bite had began bleeding again. Falspar snored as he drooled on the couch. Meta winced down and let his wings dissolve back into their normal cape form. He tried relaxing a bit, watching as the red liquid slowly oozed through the whiteness of the bandages. He pressed on to wound, curling into a ball as the bleeding stopped. He rolled his eyes and smiled at this, before deciding what the best plan of action might be.

"Maybe.. I could go solo.. no, too risky... Ugh, still no sights of her..." he whispered very softly to himself. Then it crossed his mind, '_Why do I care for her so much? I've thought of this before, but now the likeness of me and her seems more glaring..._' His eyes turned a saturated green as his mind recollected on this. Falspar stumbled off of the couch and rubbed his head as he woke up from the thump.

He got up slowly and lazily, chapping his lips together in a fashion stating he was waking up. He slowly got up and looked at Meta, staring into space with green eyes, thinking. He shrugged before mumbling, "Why are you up?" Meta turned at him and stated, "I'm nocturnal." Falspar let out an "oh". They stared at each other for a while before Falspar asked him again, "Any plan yet?" Meta shook his head no worriedly. They both were quiet before Falspar slumped back into the couch and fell asleep, leaving Meta to the peace and silence of the night to think for himself and them.

* * *

Nightmare had gotten in tell of the incident soon after, and not wanting hard work to fall to piece, had somehow gotten re-control of his beasts. They were all still faithful to him, and served him. Chili Dog ran through the streets of Peach Bay, stumbling in the dark and crashing into things like a klutz. It carried a squirming, vicious six inch tall puffball in its mouth as it growled at tried to fight back despite its wounds.

Galactacia felt blood trickling down her as she watched the small red wolf carry it through the Bay. She finally let out a last, tired breath as her attempted pummeling stopped. She felt exhausted, bloodied, and bad. Her body and mind finally gave out as she black out. Chili Dog stopped when he felt her stopped moving, and decided he too was tired from the running. As much as he wanted to stop and rest for a moment, something pushed him on. A large, purple armadillo-like demon beast crowned with a gem in its forehead much like Chili Dog's confronted the large, red wolf, spying what it thought was food in its mouth. The armadillo was very hungry, so it lunged at the wolf, trying to get what it thought was food.

Its uplifted the wolf's chin, lodging the pink puff into the air. He growled and saw a red picture of an armadillo-like creature confronting him. He spit a fireball at it, but it dodged. The fire lit up some of the rubble as the two clashed, their talons condensing together as the fought. Chili Dog snapped at it, biting it in neck. The armor of the demon beast made this tacit ineffective as it curled into a ball, bouncing into the air with the wolf around it. The crashed in to the ground, disrupting a building from standing.

Chili Dog shook his mane as he watched the old brick building tumble over the two. His eyes enlarged as both beasts leaped for it. It quaked down, as both received some sort of dings from it. Galactacia had managed to wake up some how and grunted as she clutched herself, holding her wings to her body as she made a mad crawl away from the fight. The armadillo hissed and the red wolf growled as it erupted more fireballs, going bullet happy with them. The scene was illuminated with flames. The armadillo leaped and drilled underground, leaving the red wolf looking around cluelessly.

Chili Dog howled in pain as the armadillo came up from the ground and hit him hard in the muzzle. Chili Dog soon remembered about the puffball, and bit down into the armadillo's neck as it raked him on the underbelly with its claws. He looked around while growling and flames erupted from his mouth. The demon beast armadillo let out a hiss as its face armor melted from the heat, blinding it in the eyes. Chili Dog let go and ran off, trying to look for a heat trail of the puffball. The armadillo hissed loudly in pain, looking around blinded as it was left helpless.

Galactacia stumbled down as she huffed. She felt a twinge of pain over take her as she closed her eyes, tears welded in them. She grunted as the pain overtook her, she squeaked as she felt her blood roll down the curly pink fur. She felt the stinging as she curled up into her wings, and relaxed herself, still breathing fast. After regaining calmness, she looked around. No signs of Chili Dog. She limped over to a box and put it over her, giving off a grunt as she heaved it over herself. She then laid down, repeating to herself, "It'll be okay... hng... just sleep... Your friends are gonna find you; it'll be okay... Urk...!" she shut her eyes and shivered, letting out a long breathe before slumping down and falling asleep.

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**This was actually quite a hard chapter to puzzle together, so it took a bit longer. Sorry for the wait (as always). Just hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

It was later into the night after the battle between the armadillo and Chili Dog. Galactacia was most likely sleeping.

Meta glanced at the sleeping crowd of friends in his living room, all tired from staying up late besides Falspar, whom was awake and staring in to space with a bored expression. "It's been almost two days now.." he mumbled, paranoid that still no tries had been made to find Galactacia. Something compelled him to take measures into his own paws. He tiptoed out of the room and went down the hall into his own room. Taking a toy sword from his closet, he carried it with him and departed for the front door. He closed the door and sprawled out his wings, flapping them as he took off.

He kept the sword close to his chest and fast approached the city. The city was brightly illuminated with soft lights and tiny specks of beasts, some roaming around the city for sake of curiosity, others fighting. The blue puffball swiveled down, taking a slow decent. He landed in the Alleyway near Triangle Square. He sighed and shook himself, a sudden rush of fear making his skin crawl. He noticed one of the boxes shaking and cautiously approached it.

As much as he was expecting a pink puffball to pop up, a jester-hatted purple one came up instead. The hat was somewhat torn and two, purple piercing eyes stared at Meta as he back up. He subconsciously ate the sword and gained the sword copy ability. He now had a green hat on his head, as well as a metal sword, holding it in hand defensively. Marx was taken a back as he got up and muttered, "Hey hey hey, no need to show off any swords..." Meta put his sword down ans asked surprisingly, "Marx?"

"That's my name. Ye- oh, hey Meta." he smiled, tilting his head back to adjust his jester hat. Marx had a couple of scrapes and cuts on him as well as dried blood on his fangs. Meta gave him a disgusted look when he saw his fangs and Marx gave a small hiss in turn. Meta rolled his eyes and sighed as questions to ask him flooded his mind. He shook his head and chose one to ask him. "Anyways, might you know where..." he imagined for a moment what mostly everyone nicknamed her, "... 'Cia is?" Marx licked his fangs and replied a sour, "No."

Meta sighed and gritted his gums together. "Thank you anyways.." the dark blue puff spread out his wings, ready to take a flight over the streets to try to find her. "Wait... mind if I come piggyback? I've tried for a day now to get out of this junkyard. Must of forgotten how large it seems, hehe..." Marx asked him. Meta gave a frustrated sigh and replied, "May as well, but no backstabbing." "Yeah, okay." Marx said eagerly and got piggyback on him. Meta growled and felt his bandaged wound nagging him. He ignored it and took the sword, taking off once more.

Meta hovered in the air and watched a large reptile demon beast crawl into the alleyway, looking for them. Marx seemed ecstatic about something as they flew slowly. '_How is he staying on?' _Meta wondered to himself, but ignored the question like the others.

* * *

Galactacia woke up later in the night from strange noises, growls and yips coming from the beasts. There were quite a few from the sounds of it, but none close by enough to notice her. She slowly emerged from the box like a hermit crab, and cringed due to pain. "Ugh... maybe nobody will see me again?" she whimpered to herself. A feeling of no escape suddenly entered the pink puffball and she gave a grim expression. "Maybe.." she sighed sorrowfully. More terrible thoughts overwhelmed her, but she snapped back to reality, feeling something sharp being pressed to her back. She stood still, a new fear of the stranger coming to her.

She glanced up shakily at a large, blackish blue puffball wearing a mask, the sharp sword in hand. She could only make out a large shadow of him. He was taken aback by her frightened look and put his sword away. In a rather deep and concerned voice, he asked, "Are you alright?" The new fear suppressing her of the stranger was uplifted when she realized he was friendly. Despite a sharp stinging covering nearly every inch of her flesh, she gave a small nod 'yes'. She made out a gleaming mask in the dark - perhaps a warrior of the GSA or one of Nightmare's knights? Who knows. There was blissful silence, but a loud, nearby growl ruined this.

"Let's get you out..." Michelle fell silent when he realized whom this was, that girl his son took an odd liking to. Galactacia got up slowly and looked over to see what was making the noise. The large, green, quadrupedal lizard from before squirmed through the street, barely squeezing in. Michelle withdrew his sword, ready to defend them. Chili Dog was right around the corner, sensing them and suddenly it jumped out, scratching at the lizard. He ran to the left into the alleyway they were in. He yelped as it felt a sword dig into his soft underbelly.

Galactacia was cornered and growled at the wolf as it peered at her. Michelle got on his back, piercing his sword into its shoulder. Chili Dog shook him off and shot a fireball at him. It caught him off guard and he slumped for a bit. Meanwhile, the lizard had retreated, being one of the rare demon beasts that didn't like fighting. The red wolf took a mouthful of horns to the jaw before getting the pink pompom wedged in its jaw. She fell limp, exhaustion have reached her.

Michelle got up soon after and leaped for the wolf, trying to prey her out of his mouth. Chili Dog growled and slashed at him with his talons, which were blocked. A sharp clank was made as they took turns jumping and trying to claw at each other. Eventually, Michelle opened up his wings and plummeted down in the side of demon beast's jaw. He spat Galactacia out and howled in pain, scratching the bloody sword out of his jaw. The blue puffball took his sword out of his chi. He hugged the pink girl to him and took off.

Chili Dog shot fireballs in between whimpers, realizing the pain it was succumbing to. The urge to get the pink puffball was stronger now, but hatred over came that. Michelle dodged the fireballs with slight ease before they were well out of the wolf's heat-seeking sight. She felt damp and limp in his arms. Chili Dog leaped from short buildings on top of taller ones, trying to chase after the two it had lost. It howled at them and limped off. The city behind them was brighter as some rubble created by the raging wolf lit up on fire.

Afterwards, Michelle's flight was slowed down as he encountered a puff that looked much like him. Meta stared at his father while his father made a gesture to follow him. Marx looked up with curiosity, wanting to ask something. He seemed to have a slight look of pain in his eyes before taking off. Meta followed after him, discontinuing his sword copy ability. The hat was gone and soon they landed at the front of their house and entered.

No need to worry about Mark and Delanor either, they're still sleeping.


	10. Chapter 10

**Here's the rewrite. Hope it's a lot better than the original chapter 10 and you enjoy it!**

* * *

It was the next morning. Most people were gone from the city and crossed a small sea on boats to Pupupu Village, prepared by themselves and the GSA that where fully aware of the situation. Rain rolled over the city, evoking a feeling of eeriness and tiredness among the demon beasts and remaining people in the Bay. Chili Dog remained inside rubble, not wanting to risk getting hurt more than it already was from the rain.

Mark was wide awake, awaiting his partners to rise from their sleep like zombies. He gazed out from atop the tree they'd slept under. The blue tint of Twilight Outskirts had shut off and all that Mark did was frown at the sight he saw atop the blue-saturated leaves of the tree. Small tidbits of the city were on fire from an enraged Chili Dog, but rain starting to come down soon put it out. The city was deathly quiet, as if nothing was there.

Mark pulled his cloak over his head tighter and floated down, nudging Delanor awake. The penguin snored on, his torn fedora still covering his eyes. Dedede squeaked in his sleep. Mark growled and wanted to tell him to wake up, but his translator hadn't wanted to turn on for a while now. It was sporadic when it came to turning on and off, sometimes staying on for a few moments only to remain off for a few days. He would have gotten it fixed, if not for how complex it was. That, and there surprisingly aren't any translator fixers in Peach Bay.

He pounded against it lightly like he normally did. Sometimes it turned on when he used to method, but it normally didn't. Rolling his tired eyes, he went back to nudging Delanor awake. After a while, the blue penguin finally rubbed his eyes awake and chapped his lips in the fashion some people do when they wake up. He looked at Mark and slowly got up, slinging his son around his shoulders. Mark smiled under his translator, and Delanor said to him in a zombie-like matter, "Wanna.. go get that boat now?" Delanor stretched out and then gave a hardy pat to him on the back. This caused Mark's translator to chirp on.

Delanor took a while to wake up before they began to slowly descend through the blue forest towards the quiet docks as rain pattered through the leaves. Dedede remained fast asleep, clinging onto Delanor's shoulders with a rather tight grip for somebody sleeping. Mark began to slowly talk. This surprised Delanor at first, but got over it quickly. A conversation quietly went on, hushed out by the rain as they approached the edge of the forest and the crossing path into the Bay.

* * *

The city was quiet and eerie, like a soft wind. The rain toiling down didn't help to add to this feeling of emptiness as Michelle slipped down from his roof. He'd kept watch like he was used too. He had served his time in the war, but wasn't as famed as some of the others. He wasn't a Star Warrior - just a normal member of the army. The almost black puffball was used to staying up late, as he worked now a days as someone who dealt with the local demon beasts sightings. Yet, ever since they all had invaded, he had gotten hook of the GSA and told them all about it. They'd sent in boats to take people away from the demon beast infested city and towards Pupupup Village.

Most people had left on their boats by now, having had gone to a small village far from the Bay. Michelle was pretty sure they where probably the only people left in the city besides the demon beasts. He slipped inside his house and gazed at the sleeping puffs all crowded into the living room, asleep. Marx was awake though, staring up towards the ceiling. He glanced over at Michelle and got up, tiptoeing out of the room. "Now what?" he whispered nonchalantly.

"Help me wake some of 'em up... We're going to the docks." he eyed Marx a bit awkwardly. Marx made a funny face at him after noticing this, and nodded, getting back to business. Nonsurat woke up first and easily, then Falspar and Dragata, and finally Meta and Galactacia. Everybody acted like obedient zombies, having still trying to wake up. To skip the boring tidbits, eventually everybody woke up and began to be herded outside with some sort of copy ability. Nonsurat had cutter, Falspar fighter, Meta sword, Galactacia bomb, and Dragata beam. The rain calmed down a bit, allowing passage for a slippery trail leading towards the city.

"Shouldn't we have some coats or something on?" Nonsurat asked from the back of the group as they began to cross over a wooden, creaking bridge. He tilted his cutter hat. A dried stream ran under the bridge. Marx shook his head no. "It's not that bad," he remarked. The rain slowly dripped down from the clouds.

Soon they crossed into the desolate city. It now seemed like an alien place - quiet and eerie. Tall, rummaged buildings peered at them. The streets were littered with a strange smell as well. Everybody's fur was on edge, suspense and instincts telling them a demon beast might pop up at any moment. They remained ever so closer together as the rain trailed up again, the grey omnipresent clouds remaining stalemated over the place.

Dragata jumped when a box tumbled over. She let out a nervous chuckle. "It'll be another half hour or so before we get to the Docks... that is if we don't encounter anything." Michelle muttered quietly. He shuffled his sword.

Galactacia looked around, keeping her nerve. Bandages covered her bite wounds and Meta helped her along. She felt eyes peering at them from every which angle, but nothing had came up yet. The rain stopped. They passed by Coco Tower, which had collapsed in this time. The white first floor could be seen, and brown bricks and shards of broken glass surrounded it. A small ceiling hung like a hood, barely keeping up from the rubble. Michelle froze up as so did the others at the sound of a growl.

Chili Dog glared at them from the rubble. It knew it'd be too risky to take on a group of armed puffballs, so the green gem atop his head glowed. The rain had stopped, so this was his small window to attack. Ever wonder why most demon beasts have gems on them somewhere? This is used a communication between them, and Nightmare. There are gonna be language barriers between a large, ever-growing army of randomly assorted deadly creatures, so these gems where a huge help. His gem glowed, sending out the signal for help. Nightmare would be proud if they where to take down a group of supposed Star Warriors.

The wolf waited and stared as the puffballs left the tower behind. Quickly, before the rain came back up, Chili Dog began to stalk them in a slow pace they where going in. Chili Dog growled as he saw the armadillo it'd battled a day ago appear, but he'd take any kind of help he could get. The blind armadillo hissed at him as well, but they stalked them.

Marx looked about cautiously, have the feeling engrossed over him as well as the others that something was coming. The demon beasts stalked them very quietly and slowly, as to not be noticed. A blue dragon joined their leagues as well as a small, purple griffon-like creature. Marx froze up when he saw something slinking around them. Michelle noticed this too, and grabbed his sword from its heist, holding it tightly. "Prepare yourselves..." he muttered to the group. Everyone tensed up and looked around.

Suddenly, Chili Dog jumped out at the navy puffs as thunder rolled. He was stopped point-blank by both swords as the wolf crashed into them. The armadillo ruptured from the ground, upper-cutting Nonsurat. The griffon snatched up Marx from the sky in its beak and squawked as it felt a powerful explosion go against its wings. The dragon was dealt with by Dragata and Falspar.

Marx bit hard into the griffon's tongue as it spiraled down. It spat him out and got up, jumping away from more bombs set by Galactacia. He shook his head and hissed at the griffon, biting into it's front leg. He got swept off by sharp talons. The scratch stung and soon the griffon caught a bomb in its beak. It threw it back at Galactacia. She spread her wings out and quickly flapped despite the aching in her wings, narrowly evading her own bomb. She landed with a thump as she hit the griffon back with another bomb as it approached. It screeched and flapped its wings.

Meanwhile, the dragon had some difficulty dealing with the two puffs. It shook another shock off from the beam ability, and breathed out a long hiss of fire. Falspar yelped as he watched his mohawk go up flames. He quickly punched it in the jaw so it'd stop. The dragon roared and bit onto him, the saliva putting out the fire. It felt it getting pummeled in the mouth, so it chucked him against the wall. Falspar rubbed his head, trying to regain focus. Dragata gave it a full on blast beam. In recoil, the dragon let out another terrifying roar before jousting itself towards her.

Nonsurat was down first, the armadillo proving to be too much of a hassle for one. Cutter was just clanked off by its armor, and those sharp claws had already sunken into his soft flesh enough times. The armadillo went over to help out the griffon whom was getting its tail handed to it. One wing was traumatized by too many explosions, and it struggled to deal any more damage to them.

It squawked in pain as Marx finally jumped onto it, savagely tearing his fangs through its neck. He dug deeper and felt banging against him as the armadillo tried to knock him off. The griffon collapsed after coughing up blood and Marx let go, barely evading being squished by the armadillo. The griffon exploded into a huge cloud of fizzy grey. The armadillo dug itself underground, causing a tremor knocking over Marx and Galactacia as it resurfaced, cutting into both of them. Eventually, the armadillo curled into a ball after several more explosions and its armor beginning to chip away, and rolled about blindly.

Dragata whimpered as she felt her paw being crushed by the tight grip of the dragon's bite it had locked onto her. Falspar battered against it, but to no avail. It swept him off with its tail before tossing her onto the ground. Dragata rubbed her broken paw that had held the beam scepter and slowly backed away towards a rumbled building. The pressure from the bite had broken the cartilage bone in her paw. The dragon went on anyways, ready to breathe out a big heap of fire. Falspar punched it very hard in the jaw, displacing it.

The dragon groaned and lunged at him, only to be kicked in the neck. He took it by the head and grunted before tossing it skyward with all his might. The dragon used this as an advantage to fly, but only stopped when it saw a large hadouken coming upwards at it. When it hit, there was a large explosion in the sky before it disintegrated.

Chili Dog slashed at Meta's sword and felt Michelle's plunge through his back. The wolf howled in pain and spat out a fireball at him that hit. Michelle was knocked back and felt the searing heat as his mask was knocked off and his face lit up on fire. Meta slashed at the wolf, but was caught by its talons. He bounded back as it shot a fire ball at him and attempted to slash at him. A boomerang suddenly knocked against its head and the wolf howled when it felt bombs being pelted at it. Not only that, but it began to rain again. The wolf looked up and howled, calling off the armadillo as it remained still in the ground.

Meta chased after Chili Dog as it growled, feeling the water seep into it's body. As soon as Meta had let sight loose of it, the wolf had vanished, being teleported back to Nightmare's. The armadillo rolled off while nobody was looking and it too had been teleported back to Nightmare's. Michelle got up and wiped the soot off of his face, coughing a bit. Everybody tired from the fight slowly gathered into a somewhat undamaged building, getting their wounds checked up. Rain pounded hard against the building. "We'll resume after some rest..." Michelle huffed, his nerves still a lit from getting a fireball shot face-on.

Marx licked his fangs clean of blood and Falspar comforted Dragata, clutching her paw tightly. Galactacia kept a look out and saw Delanor and Mark in damp and raggedly clothing pass by. The trio had met a group of rather curious raptor-like demon beasts and chased around by them. Dedede squeaked happily and pointed at them. By pure coincidence they had found them, and Michelle got up and let them come in. Everyone rested for a long while before letting the storm pass to go on about to the Docks.

* * *

When they had finally reached the Docks, there was one last boat parked among the ones left behind. It was large, sturdy, white, and had a ceiling covering most of the top. A sail loomed overhead. The water was calmer now that the storm had gone by, and everybody slowly was loaded on. Michelle cut the rope it was docked by off and entered the small cabin, a wind pushing it out into the water. It was slow sailing for a while.

A first aid kit on the boat was cracked open as everybody got bandaged up. Afterwards, Michelle pulled out a maxim tomato in it and split it eighth ways. Galactacia nudged Meta and murmured something that made his face light up to bright red. He chuckled, and she ate her piece and shared it with her. Nobody stared, thank gosh. They held the kiss longer then needed, and finally let go. She curled up against him.

"So where are we going?" Marx asked.

"Small town not that far Peach Bay. It's called Pupupu Village." Michelle replied, sitting down and gazing around as the wind sailed the boat by itself. It rocked gently in the waves. Everybody (Marx especially) told stories to pass the time. "So who are you?" Nonsurat asked Mark whom had been quite for a while. Everybody was intrigued by him after hearing Nonsurat's question. His ears flickered down and Delanor gave him a hearty pat on the back and said, "Go on now Mark. Introduce yourself."

He tuned his translator a bit before beginning to click out, "I'm Magolor, not Mark... you get me and Marx's names mispronounced and mixed up a lot, Delanor. But so does everybody else..."

"What do you mean crash landed? Where are you from?" Falspar asked this time. Magolor was a bit shyer then it he is now a days. It took a bit more questioning and goading for him to finally tell them the whole story. He explained he was from Halcandra, and had been sent to Popstar to get away from the war that had somewhat infected Halcandra. His ship happened to crash-land near the Bay, and he met Marx whom showed him around the city. Even showed him the Tower, where he eventually got work there as a demon beast keeper. Even more so, another tidbit that upset everybody a lot was another story.

"Alright, I admit it. I'm the dirty fiend who accidentally released the demon beast. It was late, I was drowsy, and a clever beast that could talk goaded me into releasing all of them... which I did." he said, pulling her hood over his face. It was dark outside now. "So you did it?!" Falspar huffed up. He just shook his head in shame. "I'm very sorry, I really am. I'd even make.. I don't know, a theme park or something to make up for it." Delanor tried cheering him up a bit. Michelle squeezed his fingers against his head and nodded.

"I'd like to be mad, but I'm not. I understand." he muttered to Magolor. Despite his hatred for Nightmare, Michelle was understanding that these goons where just some people who had gotten into a huge mess even they weren't aware of. Magolor prepared himself for some taunts, but they never came. Angry looks were all that he got, and he eventually sighed with relief, glad to have gotten that off his chest.

"What about you Marx? What do you have to do with Nightmare?" Meta growled somewhat.

"Oh, me? I also worked at the tower at one point, but left after I realized what was going on. That was a long time ago, back when Maggie crash landed here. I met him, liked him, and became friends with him. Simple as that. Now what about you?" Marx sneered back, glaring at Michelle.

The blackened puff looked at him. "Fine... I'm a retired warrior from the GSA. Not a Star Warrior, just a regular solider that isn't famed or anything. I served in the war and settled down here, took up work as somebody who deals with the regular beast out breaks and that's about it." He wasn't giving out any more than that. Everybody eyed each other, and Michelle got up and walked into the cabin, taking back control of the ship. Delanor was thankful nobody had asked him anything.

After a while, the moon had set pull on above them. Most where sleeping. Galactacia was awake though, staring out at the bright lights shining not too far from the ship. The sea was gentle, and she smiled when she saw the lights shining from a small town near shore - Pupupu Village. The boat ever so slowly approached the town, and she sunk back in between Meta, thinking about what the future beheld for them.

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**The end. Are there any other questions that need to be answered? If so, post them in a review and I'll get to them. Hope you liked the story! Farewell for now!**


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